Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU), warned that the virtual currencies Zcash, Monero and Ethereum are increasingly used in the digital underground market. The agency, however, reiterated that the main Bitcoin cryptocurrency remains the preferred currency in cybercrime.

In its 2017 report on the evaluation of organized crime threats on the Internet (IOCTA), Europol said that the dark network landscape is changing rapidly. The agency concluded that Monero is rapidly gaining popularity with darkweb due to its “additional security and privacy features”, which makes it one of the easy cryptocurrency options for criminals.

Part of the report says the following:

“Cyber ​​criminals continue to exploit cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin as the currency of choice for criminal markets and as a means of payment for operations related to cybercrime such as ransomware or DDoS attacks, other cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Ethereum and Zcash are winning. popularity in the digital metro. “

The report also details the main reason why cryptocurrencies become a favorite among criminals:

“Transactions can not be assigned to a particular user / address, all parts used in a transaction are” hidden “by default, and transaction histories are kept private.”

Other highlights of the IOCTA report

In his report, Interpol focuses on the popularity of digital currencies in darknet markets. As an example, he cites the case of a Monero-based ransomware called Kirk that was launched in early 2017.

In the case of Ethereum, the report argued that smart contracts based on cryptocurrencies could be used to legalize payments between criminal service providers. He also presented a decentralized dark network market case proposed to operate in the Ethereum block chain.

Meanwhile, the document says Zcash has not yet been the subject of a police investigation. However, the virtual currency would be seen by the darknet markets due to its confidentiality characteristics, which hide both the recipient of the transaction and the amount of the transaction. The case of AlphaBay

The largest darknet market AlphaBay was closed by Europol in early 2017. The closure was part of a worldwide coordinated campaign in the underground markets. However, before it closed, AlphaBay had already added Ethereum and Monero as payment options, and had already planned to include Zcash.

While any slogan may be associated with criminal activity, such security problems with cryptocurrencies provide an easy excuse for governing bodies to be continually skeptical about the value and security of digital currencies.

The nonprofit Internet Archive has included Bitcoin Cash and Zcash digital currencies as payment options for followers who wish to donate to help maintain their operations. Internet Archive is a digital library of Internet artifacts and web pages. The organization serves as host for Wayback Machine, a service that takes snapshots of web pages over time.

In his blog of mid-November 2017, the Internet Archive said that donations from his followers will help fulfill his mission of ensuring that the Internet remains “free, secure and protected indefinitely.”

“In the Internet Archive, we are big fans of the cryptocurrency movement and we have tried to do our part to test and support other means of negotiation.”

Other developments in the operations of the organization

Internet Archive also announced that it keeps its digital currency stocks in its portfolio and does not convert them into fiat currency. The group has been supporting Bitcoin donations since 2012 and has allowed its staff to be paid in the main virtual currency since 2013.

“We want to see how Bitcoin can be used, not just sell it.”

In addition, the non-profit group also announced that it plans to create a backup copy of all the books, audio files, web pages, television programs and software already produced and those that will still be launched at the same time. future. This will allow them to access all users for free on the Internet. Short profile Internet Archive

Internet Archive was created by Brewster Kahle in May 1996 to provide free public access to scanned documents. These include music, websites, software / games applications, movies and videos. Internet Archive joins the likes of Wikileaks when accepting payments with cryptocurrencies.

According to a new investment thesis published by Grayscale Investments, the value of Zcash (ZEC) could reach more than $ 62,000 by 2025, assuming that the currency will represent 10% of all extraterritorial wealth at that time.

Global Offshore

The report, written by financial analyst Matthew Beck, contains a capital liability warning in a footnote under the box indicating that prices are “PURE HYPOTHETICAL”, as well as:

“NO REPRESENTATION SHALL BE OF ANY RESULT OR MAY REACH SIMILAR PRICES TO THOSE INDICATED.”

Zcash is an anonymity-based digital currency that uses zero-knowledge tests to verify the validity of a transaction without revealing its content, giving it the appeal of a “Swiss bank account in your pocket”, such as the said Grayscale.

Grayscale Investment specifically manages investments in digital assets, overseeing the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) funds, the latest addition to its portfolio in April 2017.

The Company’s high assessment of ZEC’s growth potential is due to its similarity to BTC and ETC in combination with its confidentiality and value storage properties.

Grayscale’s investment thesis concludes that while it is difficult to distinguish which digital assets are “truly revolutionary”,

“We have come to believe that ZEC is the next generation of an invertible digital asset class, complementing BTC and ETC, and developing a new dynamic asset class.”

In the spring of 2017, Zcash joined the Jaxx multi-currency cryptographic portfolio, and in the fall, Zcash joined Bithumb, based in South Korea, despite stringent cryptography regulations in the country.

Edward Snowden, NSA privacy and whistleblower, tweeted in September 2017 that Zcash was “the most interesting bitcoin alternative”.